Europe’s Finest

Mansha Daswani spotlights the latest trends in the European drama business.

There were two major business developments in 2016 that are expected to have significant ramifications for European drama this year, and it should come as no surprise that they involve the world’s two biggest streaming platforms: Netflix and Amazon. Netflix, on the heels of its whopping $100 million investment in its first U.K.-based original, The Crown, premiered its first French commission and unveiled plans for original series in Germany, Spain, Scandinavia and Italy. Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, which wrapped its global rollout at the end of the year, made headlines when it announced it would be backing the continuation of Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86. A critical darling that found a U.S. co-production partner in SundanceTV and sold well globally (courtesy of FremantleMedia International), Deutschland 83 failed to make waves for its original commissioning broadcaster, RTL.

The expansion of the European content slates at these two platforms opens up a wealth of new opportunities, both in terms of original commissions and creating new windows. That development, many executives believe, will impact the creative process and forms of storytelling in Continental European drama. “In the more traditional markets, like Germany, France and Italy, the content has been very much defined by the broadcasters,” observes Amelie von Kienlin, the senior VP of scripted acquisitions and co-productions at Red Arrow International. The arrival of OTT platforms provides an environment where “creatives can break down barriers in terms of the storytelling. This is going to refresh the market creatively, and it will change the traditional broadcasters.”

“You can produce more high-quality drama that is not necessarily dependent on a focus group,” says Fredrik af Malmborg, the managing director of Eccho Rights, on the impact of OTT platforms. “There is more room for storytelling and there are more clients at the moment.”

Robert Franke, the VP of ZDFE.drama at ZDF Enterprises, expresses a similar opinion about the impact of OTT, noting, “There is certainly a shift toward non-traditional players from the digital world entering the markets and disrupting traditional production models. We believe that co-pros with big SVOD platforms will continue to become more important for gap financing or even as originators of new programs.”

While the OTT platforms are certainly making headlines with their European scripted investments, the majority of drama from Continental Europe is being backed by linear broadcasters, free and pay. And much of it is making its way well beyond national borders, being licensed to outlets across the region and, increasingly, around the world.

“We are seeing that there is an ongoing trend to produce high-quality drama where top-notch storytelling is the paramount goal,” reports Alexander Coridass, the president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises. “Germany is just a canvas for these new types of sophisticated narratives and programs. Ku’damm 56 or Deutschland 83 are good examples of series that have the power to travel the world and find audiences everywhere.”

Reflecting the scripted opportunities in the German market, all3media International, a major supplier of British and Australian series, is touting its first local drama, Heidelberg’s Brain, a co-production between Germany’s Filmpool Fiction and the U.K.’s Lime Pictures.

MADE IN SPAIN
Spanish shows, too, are finding new windows. ATRESMEDIA Televisión, for example, sold Velvet to the U.S., France, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Finland and Korea, among other markets, while The Secret of Old Bridge has traveled extensively across Eastern Europe and was even sold into Nigeria. On what’s happening in Spanish fiction today, José Antonio Salso, head of sales and acquisitions at ATRESMEDIA Televisión, comments, “Stories are more internationally appealing and less oriented to a local audience. On the one hand, romantic stories such as Velvet are trendy, [as are] thrillers such as Plastic Sea.”

Salso says that the international profile of Spanish drama has seen tremendous gains over the last three years, and ATRESMEDIA is working hard to expand its business in the U.S. and Asia in 2017 and build on its strong presence in Europe and Latin America.

At Eccho Rights, Turkish dramas have been strong sellers alongside a number of series from Western Europe. A lead title recently was Flight HS13, commissioned by Dutch pubcaster KRO NCRV and based on the Ay Yapim Turkish hit The End. “It was the best-rating series on that channel during the fall,” says af Malmborg. “We’ve sold it to Walter Presents in the U.K. and we have a deal in France.”

The End is also being adapted in Spain and Russia, af Malmborg notes, adding, “It’s amazing that we have the same script in three different European markets.”

Another scripted format doing well for Eccho Rights is Nurses, which first aired in Finland and has since rolled out with a Swedish edition on TV4. Eccho Rights has been actively distributing both versions. It sold the Finnish show to  ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany, marking the first time a Nordic drama has aired on a commercial channel in that country.

“We haven’t had too many conflicts” with selling the two editions of Nurses, af Malmborg says. “Obviously, there is some cannibalization, but not as much as we would expect. You either like one version or the other, and you can even sell both.”

Of the major developments in Western European drama taking place these days, af Malmborg observes, “More relationship and family issues are interesting at the moment. We’ve seen a lot of Scandinavian crime, but there’s more of a social element or more time is spent developing the characters. You can give the characters even more time to grow.”

SCANDI SUCCESS 
Scandinavian dramas remain among the region’s most popular exports, with several distributors eager to land a hit Nordic noir series. Red Arrow International has been active in the sector, showcasing properties like Farang, a TV4 and C More production starring Ola Rapace. “It’s a kind of Nordic noir, but it goes beyond that because it’s set in Thailand,” von Kienlin says. “It’s a European project but still crossing borders to a different region.”

Red Arrow is also looking to extend its alliance with Iceland’s Sagafilm on the heels of the success of the psychological crime drama Case. “Even in the small territories like Iceland, you can find great talent,” von Kienlin adds. Similarly, Red Arrow took on the Austrian drama Pregau.

The examples cited from Red Arrow are all local-language dramas with global appeal. Red Arrow is also keen on showcasing European projects in English like Embassy Down, an eight-hour thriller penned by Danish screenwriter Anders Frithiof August for premiere on Viaplay in the Nordics in 2018. “It has a very international story,” von Kienlin reports. “This is what we’re looking for, European-based projects and European-financed shows that then have the possibility to also cross over to the U.S.”

ZDF Enterprises has also been diversifying its scripted lineup. “We’re involved in many projects with Italian, Belgian, Central European, French, British and Spanish partners, to name a few,” Coridass notes. “ZDF Enterprises is a European company at its core and we take pride in our strong Euro-centric lineup and in the fact that we specialize in bringing European-produced high-quality drama to media outlets around the world. Consequently, we will continue to invest in European products.”

The distribution arm of German pubcaster ZDF was among the first to see the international potential of Scandi series, which remain an integral part of its portfolio. On how that genre is evolving, ZDFE.drama’s Franke notes, “We are seeing that Scandinavian producers are working hard to expand their lineup beyond the traditional Scandi-noir type of shows.”

IT TAKES TWO… 
ZDF Enterprises has also been embracing co-production models as it expands its drama portfolio. “In times of fragmenting markets, it gets harder and harder to produce quality fiction with only one or two partners at hand, which leads to a situation where multi-territory co-pros will increasingly become the norm rather than the exception,” Franke notes. “ZDF Enterprises has always been a leader and an expert in navigating these extremely complex co-production scenarios, so we feel very well prepared to cope with this market development.”

Red Arrow’s von Kienlin says that there are two forces at play in European drama. On the one hand, keen to entertain audiences with relevant stories, platforms are investing in highly local dramas with limited global appeal, outside of potential format sales. On the other, broadcasters anxious to deliver the highest quality possible while working with limited budgets are increasingly open to sharing costs, and potentially creative control, with international partners to get the shows they want.

“This is where producers become more and more open to co-productions in terms of getting other partners on board or shooting somewhere else in order to access funds and tax breaks,” von Kienlin notes. “It’s becoming more like film financing. Equity partners are more interested in TV financing as well. The model has become more complex, but I also think there are opportunities for bigger budgets and then one can compete with U.S. content to get the kind of cast on board that you need to stand out. What’s also very exciting about European co-productions is that you can tap into talent from different territories. You have a bigger pool [to draw from] now.”

As Franke and von Kienlin note, co-pros can be tricky affairs. The number one tactic for keeping them on course is having a single creative lead, von Kienlin stresses.

“There are different ways of co-producing—it can be just getting financing partners on board. But when it’s a proper co-production with creative parts involved on several sides, then you need to make sure that there aren’t too many cooks. You need to have one strong coordinator who manages this.”

SERIAL WOES 
One of the more high-profile co-pros in the works is Gone, based on Chelsea Cain’s novel One Kick, from NBCUniversal International Studios with RTL and TF1 as partners. The show emerged out of the 2015 pact between the three companies to develop U.S.-style procedurals. That move by NBCUniversal came in response to major European broadcasters seeking out hit procedurals and seeing that supply start to shrivel from the U.S.

“All the creatives want to work on serialized content,” Red Arrow’s von Kienlin says. “At the same time, there is such a demand for procedurals. We want to find a way to cater to that demand.”

She continues, “Our world is becoming so much darker. We feel that people who used to say, We want very edgy [content], are becoming more open and saying, Actually, a bit more blue-sky could work as well. Having more accessible stories might be a trend.”

Innovation is also happening in episode counts, with an abundance of both limited event series and reliable returnable drama.

“A lot of people ask for limited series because then you have the opportunity to attach higher-level talent,” von Kienlin says. “Talent might not be so interested to attach themselves to a longer-running series. But then again, from the distribution side it’s better if you have several seasons. Greenlighting another season already feels like success. The more seasons you have, the more attractive [the show] becomes to platforms.”

ZDF Enterprises’ Coridass sees a move toward more niche content in the scripted space. “In times where a lot of consumption is happening on nonlinear outlets, these players need to cater to the content needs of their users, who tend to become increasingly selective as to which programs they invest their time in,” he observes. “It will become more difficult to reach everybody at once, so genre fragmentation will become the norm, and we will see more smaller shows for niche audiences being produced for that purpose.”

Niche or mainstream, linear or streaming, platforms across Europe show no signs of letting up on their drama investments, and, as von Kienlin notes, “great fresh voices” are emerging all the time. “It’s about always being open and looking around” for wherever the next big hit will emerge from. Eccho Rights’ af Malmborg stresses, “A good drama can sell anywhere.”